Luv2play

I wasn't trying to rationalize anything. Just setting the record straight.

Maybe Western Union has had to become more competitive with these other newer services. Bit I haven't been a comparison between the different companies.

I should have mentioned that I can access Western Union directly on my banking website, just like e-transfers. The latter require the recipient to have an email and a link to a Canadian bank so does not apply to all cases where I am sending money to someone.

I don't know about all these newer means of transferring money to recipients in third countries but I have used Western Union and it is great because it doesn't require the recipient to have banking contacts, which can be an issue in third world countries. Even in the US it works well as their offices are conveniently located in large cities like San Francisco.

Interesting story. I had a brief fling with a dancer from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in the 1970's. He was gorgeous. He left the ballet and became the principal dancer in a hit Broadway play in the early 80s, partnering with a Hollywood legend. She was aging, however, and her legs gave out less than a year into the run, and was replaced by another, younger, soon to become Hollywood legend. Great memories.

The few times I visited San Francisco decades ago, I had rental cars and one time a friend who lived there loaned me his car for a week as he was away. Since it is a relatively compact city, it is not very far to get to places in and about SF. I felt if I lived there I would have a compact car, since parking was an issue and today I would make that an e-car. The price of gas at the pump would not bother me.

Probably should wear pleated pants if they still exist. OTOH, he doesn't look bad in the pants he's wearing. 😉

I had a brief fling with a Haitian guy years ago in Montreal. He was extremely tall and extremely black, just a gorgeous guy. But he went back to Haiti in the 70s and I never saw him again. He was named Max and had a fashion business named MaxSwell.

That fire was a tragedy.

My sister had a horse which I gave the name Mystic. She was a thoroughbred descended from Secretariat. Was tried out at 2 on the racetrack but didn't live up to its breeding. So my sis got her for a song and had her for 24 years. I rode her the odd time but she was too small for me. I only rode a horse bareback once. Now I'm quite partial to it. Lol.

Ponies are for young guys. I rode them until I was 40 and then never got on one again. I had never been thrown off one and didn't want to keep riding until that happened. Lol

I've just put two cars away for the winter and am keeping the SUV for daily driving. All cars are paid for and each spring I say I should get rid of at least one. But then in the spring I get in and drive the other two, one a faithful 20 yo Mercedes, and the other my sports car roadster and say to myself, what the heck.

Interesting about your spouse. I studied architecture for two years but didn't complete the course. I put as much emphasis on how a house looks on the outside as in the interior since I spend a lot of time in both spaces, except for the winter. I now live in the best house I have ever had for this combination. It's got the charm of a mid-19th century stone house on a large lot with inside space I modified a little to suit my needs, like turning a main floor bedroom into a library and enlarging the living room by 3 feet by subtracting from the former main floor bedroom. And like a previous poster said, my house has the perfect orientation for rooms and outside decks taking advantage of sunlight during different times of the day.

The poster said Switzerland of America, which made no sense. The ignorance lies elsewhere.

America is not the name of the continent and is the name of a country. North America is the name of the continent and includes Canada, America (United States), and Mexico.

I would love to see him but our border restrictions are still a hassle.

Well, if we can tell stories about holiday work without the restriction of being Xmas, my first real job was at a retail store (Canada's largest at the time) over the first holiday weekend of the summer in 1964. I was 17. I was only hired for the 3 day weekend but did such a great job selling kitchen wares that they offered me a job in the warehouse out in the burbs. I worked there for the rest of the summer and met this hunky guy, 4 years older, who only lived a block away in a rooming house from where I lived in Montreal with my parents in a large apartment similar to the ones on Park Avenue in NYC. So we started traveling together on the bus to go to and from work. He lived right across from the Montreal Forum and that August we listened to the Beatles from his balcony as they played their concert. All we heard was racket through the open windows. My 14 yo sister had gone with her friends to scream at the event. He had started inviting me in to his room for tea after work and I was sorely tempted to make a move on him but was too shy and awkward to make the first move and he never initiated a move. At the end of the summer another guy from the warehouse, who was also a hunk, moved in with him and they shared a double bed in that small room. A year later he called me out of the blue just to say hi. I never heard from him again but I sometimes wished I had made that move. At the time, I was a virgin and it was too big a leap. Oh, at the end of the summer they offered me a full time job but I declined as I was going off to university.

So I just checked the stats and see that about 15,000 people with HIV die annually in the US but from any cause, not specifically from their infection with HIV. This could include old age or any number of other causes. This does not surprise me since just in my own experience here in Canada, one does not read or hear about people dying of AIDS so much any more, unlike during the height of the epidemic. I was in Toronto recently and went to the park in the Gay Village to see the memorial there and read the names of people I knew who died of AIDs back in the day. No new names have been added to the plaques for years now. The names were grouped by years and they started to peter out in the early 2000s as effective treatments were introduced.

I think part of the problem may be that AIDs has largely disappeared in North America to people who are infected now living with HIV and under treatment for it which keeps AIDs at bay. It is still a problem in the third world where effective drugs are not as available as here. Somehow the conversation has not kept up with the situation which has changed from twenty years ago.

I used to buy AD years ago at the newsstand when they had articles on houses I liked. I still have all the copies I bought in the '70s and '80s. When I look at them now some of the interiors are still great and others very dated. The latter tended to be trendy designs at the time. The former were more classic, even if cottage looking. I didn't really buy them for ideas on architecture although some of the houses featured were great examples of a particular school or period. I incorporated some of the design ideas over the years in my own homes, of which I have only had a few.

I can only recall two times in the last several years when I brushed my arm across the table in front of myself and spilled red wine on my lap. Each time was in a dimly lit restaurant where I was gesturing to making a point in the conversation with an escort, that I was pretty excited about since we were returning to my hotel after dinner. In the first case, it was an upscale restaurant and a waiter immediately responded to my predicament. In the second it was a bistro and I had to clean up myself but fortunately I was wearing black trousers and the red stain didn't show too much. In both cases my escort friend was very understanding, even though neither was drinking an alcoholic beverage themselves. Given those experiences, I would tend to be very tolerant of an accident made by a waiter if the circumstance arose.

When I read accounts like this I thank God I am a Canadian and have the benefit of our system of Medicare. I know it gets bad press in the US but my experience with it over the many years I have been retired is excellent and the only cost I have to pay is for a portion of my dental expenses, which are low as my teeth are in excellent shape. I pay less than $100 for prescription drugs per year. Any my eye care is totally covered except for the cost of glasses where I have private insurance that covers a portion. And the beauty vof our system is that it is extremely simple to navigate. Sure we pay higher taxes but in the long run we pay less because we don't face these high co-pays and other premiums Americans do.

On a quiet nite in Vegas, if there is such a thing, it might be fun to take a provider on such a trip. 45 minutes might be a little too short but I suppose the option is there for a trip twice as long to ensure a more relaxed pace.

Never heard about him but like the fact he was a successful writer about his occupation. And lived to a great age.

While I'm on the point, I have often noticed that since I only hire tops or top/ versatiles, the price they charge is directly related to their penis size. The larger, the higher the hourly rate, all other things being equal, more or less.